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WHAT

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FOREWORD

The war-effort of Britain is one important
contribution to the common war-effort of the
United Nations. It is under this aspect that
the British war-effort is constantly viewed and
operated. Such is the perspective of the out-
standing facts and figures of Britain at war
which are here presented. This data is far
from exhaustive since much of the most illu-
minating information must for the time being
naturally remain secret for reasons of security.
Meanwhile, however, the following selection is
issued in the belief that it would be a grave
disservice not only to Britain but also to her
Allies in the common cause if an excessive
reticence were to prevent a general under-
standing of what Britain has done in the Second
World War.

Reference Division

Ministry of Information

12th January, 1944.

PASSED BY BRITISH CENSOR Q5098What Britain has done

SEPTEMBER 1 9 3 9 - D E G E M B E R 1943

A Selection of Outstanding Facts and Figures

1. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITAIN AT WAR

“ We must not underrate the gravity of the task which
lies before us or the temerity of the ordeal, to which we
shall not be found unequal. We must expect many dis-
appointments and many unpleasant surprises. ... If
these great trials were to come upon our island, there is a
generation of Britons here now ready to prove itself not
unworthy of the days of yore and not unworthy of those
great men, the fathers of our land, who laid the founda-
tions of our laws and shaped the greatness of our
country. . . .”

rt. hon. WINSTON Churchill, 3rd September, 1939.

Perspective

The policy of Britain in the world has for generations been very
largely directed in accordance with two constant traditions. The first
of these has been the maintenance of peaceful progress as far as pos-
sible in all quarters of the globe. Between the two world wars Britain,
as is notorious, made sincere, prolonged and unavailing efforts to
maintain peace in the face of fascist provocation. But the second
constant tradition of British policy is uttermost resistance to attempts
by any despotic aggressor to conquer and hold down the continent of
Europe. Britain has accordingly fought necessary and successful wars
against the dominations of Louis XIV, Napoleon and Wilhelm II. In
1939 she began to fight the domination of Hitler. In this war, as in the
previous ones, Britain became the focus of a grand alliance against
aggression. Nor is her determination to resist aggression limited to
Europe. The destruction of the Japanese militaristic empire is likewise
in the forefront of British aims and policy.Performance

Britain was the first nation in all the world to go to war with Hitler’s
Germany without first being attacked herself.

Britain has been fighting Germany longer than any other nation
except Poland.

Britain in 1940 virtually saved the world from German domination
by winning the Battle of Britain all but single-handed.

Britain’s testing-time in 1940-1 inspired her citizens to conduct
which won the respect and admiration of the world.

Britain at war has transformed her national existence almost more
radically than any other belligerent.

Britain’s total war-effort per head of population is greater than that
of any other belligerent.

Britain’s strategy from 1940 onwards led up to total victory in Africa,
to the redemption of the first whole continent from the enemy.

Britain’s campaigns in East and North Africa, culminating in the
triumph in Tunisia, were among the most extensive and the most
successful in all history.

Britain’s sea-power in the Mediterranean was a decisive factor in
all the warfare against Italy, which achieved her unconditional sur-
render.

Britain’s sea-power was the starting-point and prime factor for the
successful prosecution of the all-important Battle of the Atlantic,
upon which the whole development of Anglo-American strategy
depends.

Britain has in this war raised the renown of her Royal Air Force to
match that of her world-famous Royal Navy.

2. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE BRITISH ARMY
Perspective

British strategy was traditionally based upon a large navy and a
relatively small army, which would form the cadres for a systematic
expansion to augment the great continental armies of her allies, notably
France. But the fall of France at once threw the whole brunt of the
war upon Britain at a time when the bulk of the Army’s equipment
had been lost at Dunkirk. Yet, even while Britain herself was im-
minently menaced by German invasion in 1940, the British Govern-
ment took the bold and correct decision to send out important rein-
forcements to the Army of the Nile under General Wavell in accordance
with long-term British strategy in the Mediterranean. The BritishArmy was outnumbered by the enemy in every one of its campaigns
in the first three years of war.

Performance

(a)	Preliminary

“ We shall not he content with a defensive war. . . .
We must put our defences in this island into such a high
state of organisation that the fewest possible numbers will
be required to give effective security and that the largest
possible potential of offensive effort may be realised”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, PRIME MINISTER,

4th June3 1940.

The British Army not only fought the enemy pn the battlefields of
Europe, Africa and Asia, but also performed the key task of containing
the enemy in strength in Iceland, the British Isles, Gibraltar, Malta,
Cyprus, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Persia, Madagascar, India.

1.600.000	British men joined the Home Guard as volunteers in less
than two months from its formation in May, 1940. Meantime the
re-formed British Army was pacing into battle-drill, the arduous and
novel method of British military training which has produced such
conspicuously successful results.

British Commando raids gained most valuable experience for the
subsequent great amphibious attacks.

British resistance in Greece in the spring of 1941 seriously upset
the German timetable and gained time which was very likely literally
vital to our Russian allies.

The successful campaigns in Syria, Iraq and Iran consolidated the
very important Middle Eastern area against Axis designs and secured
the supply lines by way of the Persian Gulf to Russia.

(b)	Africa

“ One continent at least has been cleansed and purged
for ever from Fascist or Nazi tyranny”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 19th May, 1943.

British armies have conquered the whole extent of the great Italian
Empire in Africa with an area of 1,346,000 square miles and a popula-
tion of approximately 12,988,000.

975.000	men were the total of Axis casualties in Africa. More than
248,600 of these were Germans, and some 226,000 were natives serving
in East Africa. The main bulk were Italian.

3220.000	killed, wounded and missing were the total casualties
suffered by the forces of the British Empire in the African and Middle
Eastern theatres of war.

2,550 tanks, 6,200 guns and 70,000 lorries were captured or destroyed
by British and Allied troops in all the African campaigns.

Over 100 German and Italian generals are now British prisoners.

In the East African campaign the forces under Generals Cunningham
and Platt in a few months conquered Abyssinia—a powerfully-defended
country more than half as large again as Germany. The first country
to go under to Axis aggression was the first to be freed.

British troops swiftly overran Italian East Africa, thus greatly
facilitating all later African successes, despite the fact that at the
start of the 1940 campaign the British forces in the Sudan sector wrere
outnumbered by almost ten to one.

In the East African campaign, in 17 days (ist-i7th March, 1941)
the columns under the command of General Cunningham drove 744
miles from Mogadishu to Jijiga : an average of nearly 44 miles a day.
This is the fastest military pursuit in history. It is approached only
by the onrush of the Eighth Army in 1942-3.

General Cunningham’s troops in the East African campaign advanced
in all 1,725 miles to Addis Ababa in 53 days—a staggering achievement.

250.000	men—the whole of an enemy army—were put out of action
in the first North African campaign. Less than 2,000 casualties were
suffered by the army under General Wavell.

In the final North African campaign the British Eighth Army under
Generals Alexander and Montgomery routed the Axis forces in the
victorious Battle of Egypt fought at El Alamein, October-November,
1942.

Over 86,000 casualties were inflicted upon the Germans and Italians
when the British Eighth Army drove the enemy out of Egypt and Libya.
The enemy further lost about 500 tanks and 1,000 guns of all types.

The British Eighth Army drove the German Afrika Korps 1,800
miles across North Africa.

The British First Army with its paratroops headed the Allied drive
into Tunisia in November, 1942.

The enemy armies in Tunisia were routed and completely destroyed,
and their commander-in-chief taken prisoner, within less than one
week from the opening of the final Allied offensive on 5th May, 1943.

At least 248,000 enemy prisoners and 26 generals were captured in
Tunisia between 5th May and 13th May, 1943. This constitutes one
of the greatest defeats ever inflicted upon the German army.

4These victories in Africa were achieved 12,000 miles by sea from the
main base in the British Isles. In order to transport the warlike stores
of one ordinary infantry division overseas 179,101 packing-cases are
required and seven io,ooo-ton ships.

The victorious pursuit by the Eighth Army across North Africa was
rendered possible by a triumph of British military administration.

120.000	lorries helped to carry the 2,400 tons of all stores which were
supplied every day to the constantly advancing British troops. 2,000
new tyres were issued daily for these lorries.

76 per cent, of the Eighth Army and 90 per cent, of the First Army in
Tunisia were troops of the United Kingdom.

More than 70 per cent, of all the casualties suffered by the armies
of the British Empire in all the campaigns of 1940 and 1941 were
suffered by troops of the United Kingdom.

The Civil Affairs Directorate of the British Army has assumed
direction of the administrations of Somalia, Eritrea, Cyrenaica and
Tripolitania—the whole of the former Italian Empire in Africa except
for liberated Abyssinia.

(c) Italy

“ When I visited the President'again in Washington
in May, 1943, after and during the victory in Tunisia,
the British and American armies had great results to
display, and we therefore extended our view and set
before ourselves as our principal objective the knocking
of Italy completely out of the war this year. No one in
attempting to frame the timetable for this task3 would
have expected it to be so rapidly achieved.”

rt. hon. winston Churchill, 21 st September, 1943.

The victories of British arms were very largely responsible for the
unconditional surrender of the Kingdom of Italy in September, 1943.

British airborne troops headed the invasion of Sicily on 9th July,
1943, less than two months after the conquest of Tunisia.

The British Eighth Army (including a Canadian Division), together
with the American Seventh Army, conquered the large island of Sicily
in 39 days (9th July-i7th August, 1943).

About 167,000 of the enemy were killed, wounded or taken prisoner
in the Sicilian campaign. This included 24,000 Germans killed and

128.000	Italians captured.

500 enemy guns, 260 tanks and 1,100 grounded aircraft were further
captured by the Anglo-American forces in Sicily.

5The British Eighth Army led the assault upon the Fortress of Europe
when they landed in Italy on 3rd September, 1943.

The landing of the Anglo-American Fifth Army in the area of
Naples is considered to be the most daring amphibious operation ever
launched upon a similar scale in war. The victory at Salerno was of
critical importance for the whole Italian campaign.

By the end of 1943 the British Eighth Army had advanced some
650 miles up the Italian peninsula. From El Alamein the Eighth Army
had advanced about 2,600 miles in all.

3. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE ROYAL NAVY
Perspective

All Britain at war depends vitally upon the Royal Navy. All Anglo-
American strategy depends vitally upon the command of the sea.
The assertion of British admiralty in western waters meant the main-
tenance of the whole home front of Britain, since otherwise her people
would have starved, her factories would have stopped. And Britain
is the key base for Anglo-American attack against the Germans. The
fall of France and the entry of Italy and Japan into the war threw
perhaps the greatest burden of all upon the Navy. Germany got
possession of the continental coast with all its bases from the north of
Norway to the Pyrenees. Nevertheless the Royal Navy continued to
maintain its telling blockade against Germany. Over and above all
this, the escorting of British and Allied troops and supplies to foreign
fronts and bases is another paramount task of the Royal Navy.

Performance

(a) Convoy Protection

“ We must regard the struggle at sea as the foundation
of all the efforts of the United Nations. If they lost that,
all else would he denied to them”

rt. hon. Winston Churchill, 8th September, 1942.

Some 175,000 British and Allied vessels in well over 6,000 convoys
were escorted to and from the United Kingdom and in its surrounding
waters between September, 1939 and September, 1943. Thanks to
this endless, unspectacular work the rate of loss in these convoys was
less than one in 200 ships convoyed.

The Royal Navy, together with the Merchant Navy, saved the bulk
of the B.E.F. in the evacuations from Norway, Dunkirk, Greece and
Crete.

6The Royal Navy, during all the time of the African campaigns,
constantly convoyed reinforcements to the Middle East round by the
Cape. This is a voyage of 12,000 miles. The route to India is about
the same.

By February, 1943, out of about 3,000,000 soldiers who had been
moved all over the world in our troop convoys, only 1,348 had been
killed or drowned, including those missing.

During 1943 U-boats sank but 40 per cent, of the merchant shipping
tonnage that they sank in 1942.

In the four months ending 18th September, 1943, no merchant vessel
was sunk by enemy action in the North Atlantic.

During the first fortnight in September, 1943, no Allied ships were
sunk by U-boat action in any part of the world.

During the last half of 1943 the amount of Allied tonnage lost was
almost three times less than in .the first half of the year.

Convoys escorted by the Royal Navy, often at great risk, to Russia
and to Malta, have done a very great deal towards tiding them over
difficult periods and building up their power to hit back.

The minesweepers of the Royal Navy have played a most important
part in the safe arrival of our convoys in all parts of the world. Mines
have to be swept in the coastal waters round Britain, in the
Mediterranean, in the Cape area and round the coasts of India and
Australia. By June, 1943, the number of mines destroyed in the swept
channels would have been sufficient, if each had been lethal, to destroy
the whole British merchant fleet two and a half times over.

600 British naval vessels are at sea at any given moment and some of
them stay at sea for periods undreamed of in pre-war days. H.M.S.
“ Cumberland ” was at sea for 206 days out of a total of 213 from
November, 1940, and from the outbreak of war has steamed nearly a
quarter of a million miles. Between September, 1939, and February,
1943, the destroyer “ Forester ” steamed 200,000 miles, a distance
equal to nine times round the world. In a single year the corvette
“ Jonquil ” steamed a distance equivalent to more than three times
round the world.

The Royal Navy has rendered possible the great amphibious assaults
of the Allies. It was primarily responsible for the highly successful
landings of Allied forces in French North Africa and subsequently in
Sicily.

850 ships, including 350 warships of all sizes, were engaged in the
Anglo-American amphibious operation against French North Africa.
Two out of the three major convoys in this expedition sailed from Britain
in the protection of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. Not a
single life or ship was lost.

7Over the whole of the huge mass of shipping which entered the
Mediterranean between the 8th November, 1942, and the 8th May,
1943, losses were less than 2\ per cent.

3,266 ships of all kinds and sizes were engaged in the Anglo-American
attack upon Sicily. This was the greatest amphibious operation of all
time. In the initial assault 160,000 men, 14,000 vehicles, 600 tanks
and 1,800 guns were transported.

The virtual clearance of the Mediterranean seaway by the Royal
Navy has reopened it for through traffie, thereby shortening by
thousands of miles the convoy-routes to the Middle East, India and
the Far East.

(b)	Anti-submarine Warfare

“ There will not he in this war any period when the
seas will he completely safe ; hut neither will there he, I
believe, any period when the full necessary traffic of
the Allies cannot he carried on. We shall suffer and we
shall suffer continuously, hut by perseverance, and by
taking measures on the largest scale 3 I feel no doubt that
in the end we shall break their hearts.”

RT. hon. Winston CHURCHILL, 8th November, 1939.

570 enemy submarines were recorded as damaged or sunk up to
10th November, 1942.

At least 30 enemy submarines were sunk or damaged during the
operations off the French North African coast between 8th November
and 3rd December, 1942. That is an average of more than one a day.

In May, 1943, for the first time, the killings of U-boats substantially
outnumbered the output of U-boats.

Over 150 U-boats were sunk during the six months, May-October,

1943-

During August-November, 1943, more U-boats were sunk than
Allied ships were, destroyed by U-boat action.

(c)	Offensive Actions

“ The spirit of all our forces serving on salt water has
never been more strong and high than now. The warrior
heroes of the past may look down, as Nelson's monument
looks down upon us now3 without any feeling that the
island race has lost its daring or that the examples they
set in bygone centuries have faded as the generations have
succeeded one another.”

rt. hon. winston churchill, 23rd February, 1940.

8In the Mediterranean the Royal Navy has won every major action,
including those at Taranto and Cape Matapan.

Not one British warship was sunk by an Italian surface vessel
during the three years and more that Italy was at war with Britain.

The Italian fleet had, it is calculated, lost io cruisers, 59 destroyers
and torpedo-boats, and a large number of submarines by 5th June,
1943-

The victory of the British fleet over the Italian was completed by
the unconditional surrender of Italy. By November, 1943, the fol-
lowing ships of the Italian navy were under Allied control: 5 battle-
ships, 8 light cruisers, 31 destroyers and torpedo-boats, 40 submarines,
and scores of smaller craft.

British warships have scored notable successes against the German
fleet, including the sinking of the German battleships “ Graf Spee,”
“ Bismarck ” and “ Scharnhorst.”

In September, 1943, British midget submarines delivered an attack
of the utmost daring and damaged the German battleship “ Tirpitz ”
in her very anchorage. This was the first employment of British midget
submarines.

87 German and Italian warships were sunk or damaged by British
submarines in the first three years of war.

300 enemy supply ships were sunk by British submarines in the
first three years of war.

1,000,000 tons of Axis shipping had been sunk by British submarines
in the Mediterranean alone by 23rd January, 1943.

From the beginning of war up to 30th June, 1943, a total of 9,045,683
gross tons of German and Italian shipping had been captured, sunk or
damaged by surface vessels, submarines, aircraft or mines. (Losses
inflicted by Russian forces are not included.)

By May, 1942, apart from the operations in the Far East, 86 per cent,
of the German and Italian surface warships so far destroyed, sunk or
captured ; 89 per cent, of all enemy merchant ships put out of action ;
and 94 per cent, of the enemy submarines destroyed by all the Allies,
were sunk by United Kingdom forces.

The most important part played by naval gunnery in the battle of
Salerno is but one example of effective tactical co-operation with land
forces. During the Sicilian campaign the Royal Navy subjected the
island to more than 50 organised bombardments, and fired more than
20,000 rounds (calibres from 4-inch to 15-inch) against selected enemy
targets.

94. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

Perspective

At the outbreak of war the Royal Air Force was much smaller than
the Luftwaffe, prepared for aggression. But the Royal Air Force was
of the highest quality. The victory of the Spitfires in the Battle of
Britain was a victory not only of British fighting prowess but also of
British scientific technique and foresight. Similar foresight in this
modern sphere of aerial warfare was responsible for the decision back
in 1939 to operate the great Empire Air Training Scheme. Thus the
R.A.F. could achieve prodigious expansion and, after Fighter Command
had-saved Britain from German invasion in 1940, Bomber Command
was able to launch an ever-mounting aerial counter-offensive of
unparalleled performance against the Reich. The Germans have
thereby been compelled to divert aircraft from battlefronts in such
strength as to leave their armies without adequate air-cover, whereas
units of the R.A.F. operating with the Eighth Army have led the way
to new achievements of land-air co-operation. At the same time
manifold increase in the strength of Coastal Command has enabled
it to play a decisive part in fighting down the U-boat attack.

Performance

(a) Fighter Operations

“ Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed
hy so many to so few.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 20th August, 1940.

The Royal Air Force decisively defeated the Luftwaffe in the Battle
of Britain. On the 15th August, 1940, British pilots shot down at
least 181 enemy aircraft for certain, and on the 15th September they
shot down 185. The number of German machines actually destroyed
was almost certainly substantially larger than the official figures.

Over 100 enemy aircraft were shot down in a single day by the
R.A.F. on five separate occasions during August-September, 1940.
2,225 enemy aircraft were destroyed during August-September, 1940,
by the R.A.F. for the loss of 616 of their own machines.

After beating the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, Fighter Command
moved into the offensive. British fighters swept over the Low Coun-
tries and France and defeated the Germans over their own airfields.
More than four out of every five enemy aircraft destroyed by British-
based fighters in 1943 were, on an average, shot down on the enemy’s
side of the English Channel.

Two German aircraft were destroyed for every British fighter lost
in all operations during 1943.Over 1,000 enemy aircraft destroyed since the start of war is the
score of one Fighter Command station with its satellite airfields.

Some 40,000 sorties were flown during 1942 by aircraft of Fighter
Command in the protection of convoys.

R.A.F. fighter-squadrons and anti-aircraft gunners based on Malta
had, up to the end of December, 1943, destroyed 1,471 enemy aircraft
over the island and surrounding area. Of this total 1,000 enemy
aircraft had been destroyed by fighters alone by the end of April, 1943.

1,696 enemy aircraft were destroyed in North Africa between 8th
November, 1942, and 7th May, 1943. Allied losses over the same
period were 657.

Over 7,600 Axis aircraft were destroyed in all the campaigns in North
Africa. 5,156 of these were destroyed in combat, and 2,500 destroyed
or captured on the ground.

Over 33,000 sorties were flown against Sicily between 3rd July and
17th August, 1943, when the island fell. 27,000 of these were made by
fighters and fighter-bombers of the Tactical Air Force.

1,100 enemy aircraft were captured on the ground and 451 destroyed
in combat during the Sicilian campaign. The enemy lost 1,691 aircraft
in all between 1st July and 17th August, 1943. Allied losses were 274.

Over 2,800 sorties were flown by fighters based on Sicily during the
first four days of the battle of Salerno.

Over 21,900 enemy aircraft were brought down by the Royal Air
Force and by Dominion, American and other Allied squadrons operat-
ing with it, or by British anti-aircraft fire, between September, 1939,
and the end of 1943, over Great Britain, continental Europe, the Middle
East, India and Burma. This figure includes 1,086 aircraft brought
down by naval and merchant vessels or by the Fleet Air Arm, but does
not include the large numbers destroyed on the ground—well over
3,000 in the Mediterranean area alone.

(b) Coastal Operations

“ The great victory which was won by our North
Atlantic convoys and their escorts in May was followed
by a magnificent diminution of sinkings. . . . Most of
all, so far as last year is concerned, it is the result of the
startling intervention of the long-range aircraft of the
British Empire and the United States and especially of
our Coastal Command”

rt. hon. Winston Churchill, 21 st September, 1943.

Aircraft of Coastal Command have flown well over 80 million miles.
Over 30 million miles were flown in 1943 by aircraft of Coastal Com-
mand, of which 25 million were flown on anti-submarine patrols.Over 900 attacks on U-boats have been made by Coastal Command
since the beginning of war.

More U-boats were destroyed by Coastal Command in 1943 alone
than in the three previous years of its operations put together.

One out of every three U-boats crossing the Bay of Biscay is, it is
estimated, subjected to attack.

Over 5,300 convoys, excluding naval convoys and single ships, were
given air escort by Coastal Command during the first three and a
half years of war. This entailed more than 31,000 operational sorties.

In 1943 Coastal Command flew approximately 39,000 sorties, includ-
ing attacks upon enemy shipping.

In two years of war the R.A.F., in all theatres of war, sank or seriously
damaged more than ij million tons of enemy shipping.

By December, 1942, Coastal Command already had more aircraft
than the entire R.A.F. had at the start of war. 80 per cent, were engaged
in offensive anti-submarine sweeps and 20 per cent, on convoy duties.

(c) Bombing Operations

“ All through these 'dark winter months the enemy has
had the power to drop three or four tons of bombs upon us
for every ton we could send to Germany in return. We
are arranging so that presently this will be rather the
other way round”

rt. hon. winston Churchill, 9th February, 1941.

Over 200,000 tons of bombs had been discharged upon Germany by
the Royal Air Force by the end of 1943.

In the first year of war the R.A.F. dropped 3,500 tons of bombs on
Germany, in the second year 20,000 tons, in the third 33,000 tons, and
in the fourth 96,000 tons. Thus a total of 152,000 tons of bombs had
been dropped on Germany up to 2nd September, 1943. This compares
with just under 63,000 tons dropped on Britain by the enemy during
the four years.

Britain’s heaviest bomb to-day, weighing nearly 4 tons, is approxi-
mately sixteen times greater than the heaviest bomb used at the
beginning of 1940, and is approximately double the maximum bomb-
load in 1939.

Over 1,000 bombers attacked Cologne on the night of 30~3ist May,
the Ruhr and Essen on ist-2nd June, and Bremen on 25th-26th June,
1942.

12Bomber Command fought three great and successful battles over
Germany in 1943. These battles of the Ruhr, of Hamburg, and of
Berlin marked a new stage in aerial warfare.

The battle of the Ruhr, which began with the heavy attack on Essen
on 5th-6th March, 1943, included the breaching of the Mohne and
Eder dams on 17th May. This released 336,000,000 tons of water and
caused floods extending for 50 miles.

In a one-hour raid on Dortmund on 23rd-24th May, 1943, R.A.F.
bombers dropped more than eight times the weight of bombs dropped
on Coventry in November, 1940, during an all-night raid by the
Germans, i.e., over 2,000 tons against 225.

Some 10,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Hamburg by the R.A.F.
and U.S.A.A.F. between 24th July and 3rd August, 1943. This com-
pares with 7,500 tons dropped on London by the enemy during the
eleven months of the blitz.

The shock attack of the Royal Air Force upon Hamburg so dis-
organized the German defences that the whole battle was won in just
about 10 days at a cost-of 87 British aircraft.

In a 2,000-ton raid on Frankfurt on 20th-2ist December, 1943,
Bomber Command discharged bombs at the rate of 70 tons a minute
at the height of the raid. This compares with the average rate of one
ton a minute during the German raid on Coventry in November, 1943.

21.000	tons of bombs were dropped on Berlin by the R.A.F. during
1943 alone. Two-thirds of this total were dropped since the beginning
of the major battle of Berlin on 18th November, 1943. The R.A.F.
has thus rendered Berlin the most heavily bombed city in the world.

130.000	tons of bombs were dropped by Bomber Command on
German-occupied Europe during the first ten months of 1943. That
is over twice the total tonnage dropped on Britain since the war
began. Of those 130,000 tons 85 per cent., or 112,000 tons, were
dropped on Germany itself.

The air-attack of the R.A.F. and U.S.A.A.F. caused 50 per cent, of
all the enemy’s day-fighters and 85 per cent, of all his night-fighters
to be based on the western front by the beginning of September, 1943.

The percentage losses of Bomber Command were consistently lower
in 1943 than in 1942, and lower in the later months of 1943 than in
the earlier.

15 air attacks were delivered against North Italian cities by long-
range home-based British bombers between 22nd October and 12th
December, 1942. Turin was raided eight times, and 1,600 tons of
bombs were dropped.

13Raids on Italy in 1943 were much heavier. On i2th-i3th August,
for instance, home-based British bombers dropped 1,000 tons of bombs
on Milan and nearly as much on Turin.

Over 20,000,000 lb. of bombs were dropped on enemy objectives in
North Africa between 8th November, 1942, and 7th May, 1943. On
one day alone (6th May) over 2,500 sorties were flown and 1,250,000 lb.
of bombs dropped.

Bombers of Tactical and Strategic Air Forces together dropped
18,000 tons of bombs, mainly on Sicily, during July and the first half
of August, 1943.

1,400 tons of bombs were dropped on German troops in the area of
Salerno in one 24-hour period at the height of the battle.

5. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MERCHANT NAVY

“ The Merchant Navy, with Allied comrades, night
and day, in weather fair or foul, face not only the ordinary
perils of the sea hut the sudden assaults of war from
beneath the waters or from the sky. . . . We are a
seafaring race, and we understand the call of the sea. . . .
We feel confident that that proud tradition -of our island
will he upheld to-day wherever the ensign of a British
merchantman is flown.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, July, I94I.

Perspective

Before the Second World War Britain’s Merchant Fleet was the
largest in the world with a gross tonnage of about 18,890,000 tons.
But at the same time the fleet was smaller than it had been before
the First World War by just about one million tons. Thus a greater
strain than ever was imposed upon the ships and the seamen who sail
them in order to maintain the supply of vital raw materials and food-
stuffs without which the factories and people of Britain could not
continue to exist—between 30 and 40 million tons are imported each
year. But from the start Britain applied her great experience in the
organisation of convoys. Her merchant seamen, all of whom are
volunteers, have maintained not only the British base itself but also
the various fronts and garrisons established throughout the world.
They also bring aid to Russia.

Performance

Nearly 2,000 merchant ships from the United Kingdom are at sea at
any time.

HBritish ocean convoys totalled 125,000,000 ship-miles in the first
three years of war. This is equivalent to 6,000 times round the world.

The tanker “ British Confidence ” steamed 243,000 miles in the
first four years of war. Some of the large motor-vessels with a high
speed have completed 300,000 miles in the same period.

The tanker “ British Judge ” steamed 20,000 miles with a hole as
large as a medium-sized house in her side. She reached her destina-
tion safely.

Ships of the Merchant Navy had shot down 119 enemy aircraft up to
30th November, 1943.

23.000	military vehicles, some 1,300 aircraft, over 400,000 tons of
military and air stores, and hundreds of locomotives were carried
overseas by United Kingdom shipping in the single month of October,
1941.

300 ships were continuously employed during 1941 on the 12,000-
mile voyage round the Cape to support British armies in the Middle
East.

500.000	men, 50,000 tanks and other vehicles, and 1,000,000 tons of
stores were carried round the Cape to destinations in the Middle East,
India and the Far East during 1942.

During 1942 the “ Queen Mary,” which was being used as a troop
transport, saw active service in every ocean of the world. On one
voyage across the Atlantic the “ Queen Mary ” carried mere than

10,000	persons including soldiers and crew, as compared with a maxi-
mum of about 4,000 passengers in peace-time.

Over 3,000,000 tons of military stores, including 1,000,000 tons of
food, had been landed in Egyptian ports alone up to April, 1942.

500.000	men and over 1,000,000 tons of stores were landed in North
Africa in the first four months of the Tunisian campaign.

During the six months of the Tunisian campaign more than 1,000
merchant ships left the United Kingdom alone, carrying a constant
stream of millions of tons of supplies to the armies in North Africa.

12.000	ships carrying over 77,000,000 tons of cargo have been convoyed
from Canadian shores alone up to the middle of June, 1943.

The Merchant Navy brought over all the quarter of a million
Canadian soldiers now in Britain.

It is by the ships of the Merchant Navy that the three-quarter
million items in the range of the Army’s fighting and technical stores
and the three-quarter million items in the R.A.F.’s stores are moved.Approximately 100,000 tons of shipping a year are required to
transport a division of 20,000. men 1,000 miles overseas, with arms,
equipment and stores, and to keep it supplied and reinforced.

i6| tons of spare parts must, it is estimated, be shipped overseas in
order to keep 100 25-pounder guns in action for one year. One medium
tank may need up to 2 tons of spare parts in a year.

Every bomber sent overseas requires, it is calculated, a total of
1,000 tons of shipping to carry the personnel, petrol, bombs and spare
parts necessary to put it into operation. All these have to be carried
by ships.

It is to the ships and men of the Merchant Navy (as well as the Royal
Navy) that hundreds of thousands of men of the Forces owe their lives
and freedom in the evacuations from Norway, Dunkirk, Greece and
Crete.

.5,175 awards for bravery or meritorious service had already been
made to merchant officers and seamen by 31st December, 1943.

Over 16,000 men of the British Merchant Navy lost their lives in
the first three years of war.

6. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CIVIL DEFENCE SERVICES

“ The courage of Londoners, and the organisation of
our many defence and municipal services under un-
exampled strain, not only enabled us to come through
what many might have thought a mortal perils hut
impressed itself in every country, upon the minds of every
country in the world”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 1/^th July, I94I.

Perspective

London is 15 minutes by air from the French coast, now under Ger-
man occupation. That has been the constant background for more
than three years. The men and women of the Civil Defence services
were the front-line fighters of the British people when they successfully
withstood the enemy’s onslaught from the air during the Battle of
Britain. At the time of the blitz 50,000 high-explosive bombs were
showered down upon London between the beginning of September,
1940, and the end of July, 1941. The number of fire-bombs dropped
was far larger.

Performance

London was bombed every night except three from the 7th September
to the end of November, 1940. Yet life and war-work within the capital

16were never fatally interrupted. This was due in great measure to the
men and women of the Civil Defence services—wardens, firemen,
police, rescue squads, drivers, nurses and auxiliaries.

Nearly 10,000 fires were attended to by the London fire brigades and
their reinforcements during the first 22 days and nights of the blitz.

Civilian fire-guards were organised to counter the enemy’s fire-
raising tactics, and to-day the fire-guards* number over 4,500,000 men
and women.

3,060 incendiary bombs were dropped and 20 fires were started in
one very sharp raid on a town on the south-west coast. Firfe-guards
dealt with these so effectively that the National Fire Service had to be
called out only to two of these fires.

Nearly 14,000 instructors have been trained in special schools for
Civil Defence. 30,000 instructors are engaged in giving technical
training to fire-guards in stirrup-pump drill.

The system of water supply was so efficiently maintained during the
blitz that .no cases of typhoid occurred. Hygiene was so well main-
tained that despite the crowding of London’s air-raid shelters there
was no increase in disease.

Over 2,750,000 houses in England and Wales were damaged by
bombs from the start of war up to November, 1942. That is more
than one out of every five houses in the country. Out of this total
2,500,000 houses had received first-aid repairs up to 31st March,
1943, and well over 1,000,000 had received more extensive repairs.

3,500 mobile volunteers have been formed into a labour corps known
as the Special Service Flying Squad. This squad, housed and fed in
travelling caravans, supplements local resources in severe air attacks.
It has dealt with more than 160,000 cases of intensive repair to bomb-
damaged houses, and industrial objectives.

After one raid on towns on the east coast of Scotland flying squads
of repair-workers got on the job with such effective despatch that
families who had to leave their damaged homes were back within a
few hours.

Nearly 14,000 churches and other ecclesiastical buildings, 1,103
schools and about 500 hospitals have been destroyed or' damaged in
Britain.

Very many of Britain’s provincial cities suffered greatly in the blitz.
Coventry was only the first.

Plymouth, for instance, was savagely bombed by the Germans five
times over between 21st and 29th April, 1941. Many Civil Defence
depots and posts were demolished or damaged and there were numbers
of casualties among the personnel. During April, 27 of the wardens

17alone were killed or seriously injured. But Civil Defence carried on in
Plymouth, and on the last night of the April attacks 12,000 citizens
were organised and brigaded as fire-bomb fighters, apart from the
unorganised volunteers.

Even now the lull is only relative. Since November, 1942, there
have been numbers of sharp raids on British towns, including London,
Canterbury, Aberdeen, Great Yarmouth, Sunderland, Cardiff,
Brighton, Bournemouth, Torquay, Grimsby, Hull.

50,241 British men, women and children had been killed in all
enemy air-raids up to 30th November, 1943. 59,935 had been injured.

Whole-time workers of the National Fire Sendee undertake a very
important programme of home work when they are not actually fire-
fighting and training. They do work on fire-stations, static water
apparatus, public lighting, etc. In rural areas they help harvesting,
and in towns they have done a great deal of productive work on camou-
flage-netting, parts for sten-guns, etc.

At the time of the great blitz on Coventry roughly 80,000 people were
working in that district. It took Only 14 days to get 77,000 of them
back to work.

After eight nights of blitz on the docks at Liverpool, every shift
was working in about three days after the attack had ceased.

1,000 decorations and commendations for bravery had been made to
members of the Civil Defence services in Britain up to November,
1943-

One warden in every six during the Battle of Britain was a woman.
The women of Britain know about war. So do many of the children.
Because when war came to Britain it was total.

7. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH ECONOMIC WARFARE
Perspective

The object of British economic warfare is to limit and, if possible,
break the economic power of the enemy to keep fighting. Britain has
accordingly, since 3rd September, 1939, directed organised economic
warfare against Germany’s whole process of supply as well as against
her entire complex of materials, machines, manpower, organisation
and stamina. This warfare is conducted by two chief means : first
the preventive arm of naval blockade co-ordinated with special com-
mercial and financial measures in neutral countries, and secondly
the directly destructive arm of aerial bombardment. The British
blockade cuts off German-dominated Europe from vital sources of
supply overseas, especially the rich Japanese “ Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

18Any imports from overseas to neutral countries in Europe are restricted
to fit their domestic requirements so that there should be no surplus to
pass on to the Germans. In so far as these countries have domestic
surpluses which the enemy needs, Britain takes steps to buy them up
by pre-emptive purchase. At the same time enemy production is
itself attacked by the directly destructive arm of the bombing offensive,
which strikes at selected key-points in German industry and transport
where destruction will take the greatest direct and indirect effect.

Performance

(a) Blockade

“ Nearly all the German ocean-going ships are in
hiding and rusting in neutral harbours, while our world-
wide trade steadily proceeds.”

rt. HON. WINSTON Churchill, 12th November, 1939.

The blockade has virtually cut Germany off from the sources which
normally supplied her with four-fifths of her oil imports, all her natural
rubber, about three-quarters of her copper requirements, practically
all her cotton requirements and over two-thirds of her wool.

In one six-month period the interception of enemy blockade-
runners by the Royal Navy inflicted upon Germany a probable loss of
30,000 tons of rubber, 5,000 tons of tin, 25,000 tons of edible oils and
important quantities of tungsten and quinine.

British pre-emptive purchases denied Germany all chrome from
Turkey from 1940 to the early part of 1943.

Britain has bought up all the surplus woollen goods in Turkey and
in Spain. The consequences of this operation were experienced by
the Gerrrtan armies on the Russian front, particularly in the winter of
1941-2. In all pre-emptive purchases Britain and the United States
have acted in complete co-operation.

The British Statutory List has successfully immobilised enemy firms
in countries overseas. Germany and her agents abroad have been
prevented from availing themselves of the foreign'assets of their satel-
lites and the enemy-occupied countries by effective freezing measures.

The enemy’s oil shortage due to the blockade has undoubtedly had
effect in reducing the scale of German operations upon the Russian
front, and is a factor of general economic stress. By cutting off the
Reich from overseas sources of oil, the blockade has forced the Germans
to apply drastic restrictions to motor traffic. This, in turn, has further
increased the burden on the railways. Shortage of lubricating oils is
causing great wear and tear to rolling stock.

19The blockade has compelled Germany to concentrate increasingly
upon the manufacture of substitute products (e.g., Buna), which are
almost always more costly in resources and labour than the normal
products or than the production of exports to pay for the import of the
natural products. Substitutes can only be manufactured by diverting
for the purpose great quantities of coal, timber and electric power—
nearly one-quarter of Germany’s total production of electricity is
consumed in making substitutes.

The total labour force of over n million people continuously em-
ployed in German agriculture is one million larger than in pre-war
years mainly as a result of the impossibility of obtaining imports.
The total labour force available for the German armed forces and war
industries is correspondingly diminished.

The victorious campaign in North Africa notably tightened the
blockade, particularly as regards agriculture. German-occupied Europe
was thereby cut off from imports of 100,000 tons or more of vegetable
oil or its equivalent in oilseeds as well as significant quantities of grain.
The enemy was at the same time deprived of a source whence he had
drawn if million tons of phosphates in 1941.

By controlling passage to and from the Mediterranean, even after
the fall of France, the Royal Navy successfully prevented sea traffic
between Germany and Italy, and Germany and the Balkans. Thi's has
put further strain upon the enemy by forcing upon him greater use of
railways and inland waterways as against sea transport.

British control of the English Channel by minelaying and patrolling
has prevented any enemy commercial traffic, except for rare shipments,
passing through the Straits of Dover. The continental ports south of
Rotterdam have been rendered almost entirely inactive.

Navigation of the Dutch coastal lane has been rendered so hazardous
to the enemy that the bulk of the traffic previously handled by Rotter-
dam has been pushed back to Emden, a port far less suitable for the
purpose even apart from the Allied bombing.

On two nights of April, 1943, aircraft of Bomber Command laid as
many mines at sea as were laid in the whole of 1941.

(b) Bombing

“ We have a long list of German cities in which all the
vital industries of the German war machine are estab-
lished. All these it will be our stern duty to deal with”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 10th May, I942.

As a result of bombing, together with some other factors, the overall
production in Germany in the spring of 1943 was rendered 15-20 percent, lower than in the spring of 1942. In the Ruhr alone it was 35 per
cent, lower.

German shortage of guns, tanks, aircraft and ammunition on the
Russian front in 1943 were partly the result of the attacks of Bomber
Command.

During 1943 nine out of Germany’s 21 major industrial cities
(population over 250,000) were so seriously devastated by air attack
that in all probability they were forced for some time to consume more
than they produced. A number of rather smaller cities, such as Kassel,
were reduced to the same state.

Bombing of transport centres such as Berlin and Cologne inflicts
delays all along the line and imposes extra demands upon labour for
repairs. The destruction of the Ministry of Transport in Berlin is
calculated to create some confusion in transport administration.
Dislocations and disorganisation imposed upon German local transport
have been very considerable, holding up war-workers and depriving
enemy industry of millions of man-hours.

During November, 1943, alone air attacks on twelve enemy railway
centres destroyed nearly 200 locomotives and severely damaged nearly
as many. In addition 7,000 goods wagons were destroyed, over 9,000
damaged, and nearly 2,000 passenger coaches destroyed or damaged.

Persistent bombing of locomotive works such as Henschels, Krupps
and Fives-Lille has put behind schedule the enemy’s programme for
the production of specially economical war-time locomotives to ease
his shortage. 100-150 locomotives a month have been shot up.

The British air attack which breached the Eder dam in May, 1943,
is considered to be partly responsible for the fact that the minimum
depth required for navigation in the Weser river and in the very
important Mittelland canal has not been maintained.

Since the beginning of 1943 air attack has inflicted damage upon
more than 40 collieries of the Ruhr, which produces four-fifths of
Germany’s coke.

The air attacks of May, 1943, alone resulted, it is conservatively
estimated, in a decline of 15 per cent., or about 1,000,000 tons, in the
output of the Ruhr-Aachen coalfield. The total production in that
month is not likely to have exceeded 8 million tons as against something
over 11 million tons per month in 1941.

During May, 1943, alone heavy blows were struck in turn against
the great steel-manufacturing towns of Essen, Duisburg, Dortmund,
Bochum and Diisseldorf as part of a correlated air attack upon the
industry. It appears probable that by the end of the month steelingot production cannot have been running at more than 65 per cent,
of capacity. The decline in finished steel output at this date was even
greater.

Air attacks during 1943 inflicted particularly heavy losses upon the
German radio and radiolocation industry. In March Telefunken in
Berlin and Siiddeutsche Apparatfabrik in Nuremberg were hit in raids.
Both suffered serious drops in production. In June radiolocation
plant at Friedrichshafen was raided. On I7th-i8th August a great
force of the R.A.F. attacked Peenemunde, Germany’s largest research
and development station for radiolocation and electrical anti-aircraft
devices.

670 buildings of the great arms firm of Krupps at Essen were
destroyed or damaged in four air attacks during March-May, 1943.
The damage done to Krupps in the one night attack of 25th July
was as serious as all the damage inflicted by the previous attacks of the
year.

£1,000,000 or 20,000,000 man-months of labour is an estimate of
the damage done to roofs at Krupps.

8. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH AID TO ALLIES
Perspective

This war is being fought on the principle of mutual aid and the
pooling of resources. Generous American lend-lease became trans-
lated into mutual aid when the United States entered the war. This
was confirmed by Britain’s mutual aid agreement with the United
States in February, 1942. It wras estimated in November, 1943, that
mutual aid expenditure by Britain currently amounted to 10 per cent,
of Britain’s war expenditure. The nature of Britain’s reciprocal aid
makes it impossible to give complete money values. Such British
aid to the United States, for instance, is mainly the provision of services
and a wide variety of items transferred in the daily course of the war
such as the free provision of transport services, accommodation, air-
fields and facilities in Britain and the Colonies, together with informa-
tion and the fruits of research as tested in the light of battle experience.
Nor does mutual aid cover the whole of overseas expenditure. Pay of
troops and expenditures in third countries are outside its scope.
Britain has borne a particularly heavy share of this burden. Up to the
middle of 1943 the part of it borne by Britain, in the form of payments
made to other members of the United Nations in excess of sums
received from them, amounted to over £2,250,000,000.

22Performance

(a) To the United States

“ These two great organisations of the English-speaking
democracies, the British Empire and the United States,
will have to he somewhat mixed up together in some of
their affairs for mutual and general advantage.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 20th Augusty 1940.

Britain has, notwithstanding the lend-lease arrangement, spent some
£1,500,000,000 in the United States on supplies of all kinds since the
outbreak of war.

In September, 1940, Britain leased to the United States for 99
years without charge naval and air bases on British island possessions
in the Western Atlantic; this in return for the most timely gift of
50 over-age American destroyers.

Two of the biggest aircraft maintenance depots in the world have
been handed over to the Americans. One was specially built and
another, already in existence, was handed over intact. It covers an
area of 600 acres, and the buildings provide 1,500,000 square feet of
floor-space.

U.S. forces in Britain are provided with many types of supplies,
including bombs, shells, ammunition, anti-tank mines, Spitfires, as
well as large quantities of food from British stocks.

The equipment and tools of a complete anti-aircraft gun barrel
factory, and, for example, shell-producing plants, have been Sent from
Britain to the United States as reciprocal aid.

Britain has sent America, free of charge, machine-tools, anti-aircraft
guns, ammunition, Rolls-Royce engines and thousands of barrage
balloons. Britain has supplied America with her newest inventions
such as radiolocators, astrographs, and the jet-propulsion aero-engine.

Britain supplied the basic design for the American “ Liberty ” ship.

Britain does not waste manpower keeping detailed accounts of each
item of aid, and no monetary value could in any Case be put on many
items. Subject to these limitations, the estimated value of work done
by 30th June, 1943, on capital installations for the use of U.S. forces
in Britain alone was £92,000,000. And much more work has been
done since then.

£82,000,000 was, subject to the above limitations-, the total of goods
and services transferred to U.S. forces in Britain up to 30th June,
1943.	£42,000,000 was the value of shipping services rendered.

These figures relate to transfers and services in Britain alone and to

23shipments to the United States only. And even under these three
headings they do not include all the aid actually furnished by Britain
up to the middle of 1943.

(b) To the U.S.S.R.

“ We shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the
Russian people. We shall appeal to all our friends and
allies in every part of the world to take the same course
and pursue it, as we shall, faithfully and steadfastly to
the end. We have offered the Government of Soviet
Russia any technical or economic assistance which is in
our power, and which is likely to be of service to them.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 22nd June, I94I.

Britain has furnished war material free of cost to the U.S.S.R. singe
she became engaged in war with Germany. By the middle of Novem-
ber, 1942, Britain had already sent Russia enough equipment for 20
armoured divisions on the German scale.

For every 100 aircraft which Britain promised Russia she had sent
hi by the end of May, 1942.

4,690 complete aircraft, including losses in transit, had been sent by
Britain to the U.S.S.R. by the end of May, 1943. These were furnished
with appropriate supplies of spares, including engines and airframes.

Military and industrial supplies sent to the U.S.S.R. under Britain’s
lend-lease agreement amounted to £179,000,000 up to 30th June, 1943.

Additional to that are the expenses of conveying the stores and keeping
open the routes to Russia. Britain opened up a route to carry supplies
across Persia, as well as sending quantities of materials by the northern
sea route.

19 great convoys had arrived safely at Murmansk since the begin-
ning of the war in Russia up to the end of 1942. 75 British warships
of varying sizes escorted one of the largest convoys in the early autumn
of 1942. Up to June, 1942, Britain provided nearly 90 per cent, of the
ships sailing by the northern route.

In order to get the stuff to Russia by the northern route British
convoys often have to beat their way through foul weather and heavy
enemy attacks. On one occasion 40 enemy bombers were shot down
out of 350 that attacked a convoy. More recently the German battle-
ship “ Scharnhorst ” was encountered on the route and sunk by
British naval forces.

By September, 1941, Britain had already shipped to Russia sub-
stantial quantities of rubber, tin, wool, lead, jute and shellac. By
November that year thousands of tons of sugar had been despatched.

24Half a million pairs of boots were shipped from Britain to Russia
within one week of the German invasion of the U.S.S.R. By April,
1942, the entire 3,000,000 pairs of boots asked for by Russia had been
shipped from Britain at a cost of 40,000 tons of shipping-space.

In four days alone the Quartermaster-General’s Department of the
British-Army baled, packed and despatched to Russia enough great-
coat cloth to stretch from the White Sea to the Black Sea.

Over £4,000,000 in voluntary contributions has been collected in
Britain for “ Aid to Russia.”

(c) To China and other Allies

“ We are determined to extend to the Chinese people
every material, moral, and spiritual help in our power.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 5th July, 1942.

Britain has supplied, free of charge, arms, munitions and military
equipment to Chinese forces in China within the limitations of trans-
port from India.

In addition Chinese troops, first in Burma and then in India, have
been given all they require locally, whether by issue from British Army
stocks or by local purchase, including rations and pay in local currency
together with cash for local purchases, on lend-lease terms.

In November, 1943, Britain had on loan to her Allies one cruiser,
14 destroyers, 17 corvettes, 6 submarines, 16 motor torpedo boats, 17
motor launches, 19 minesweeping vessels and 4 frigates.

Credits formed most of the assistance which Britain gave to her
Allies, other than the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., prior to her com-
paratively recent lend-lease arrangements with them. Britain’s credits
to her Allies, other than the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., together with
such lend-lease assistance as Britain had provided before then, totalled
about £186,000,000 by 31st December, 1942.

The British Broadcasting Corporation affords to the Allied Govern-
ments in exile the opportunity of addressing their own broadcasts from
London to their own people in German-occupied Europe, by enabling
them to take part in the production of the B.B.C. programmes and by
giving them periods of ‘ free time ’ for their own programmes. Eight
European Allied Governments receive ‘ free time ’ in the B.B.C.
services, totalling 2f hours daily, and in addition two are allocated
time hired by the British Government on the Cairo transmitters.

The B.B.C. broadcasts to continental Europe a daily news service
in 21 languages : English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portu-
guese, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Albanian, Bulgarian,

25Czech, Dutch, Flemish, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Rumanian, Serbo-
Croat and Slovene. Additional transmissions in Luxembourg patois,
Slovak and Icelandic make 24 languages in all.

There are now 168 transmissions in every 24 hours, and as some of
these are simultaneous, the B.B.C. is actually broadcasting to Europe
for over 44 hours during a 24-hour day.

Daily half-hourly transmissions in morse bring the latest news to
the editors of the hundreds of underground papers secretly published
in the German-occupied countries.

The B.B.C. also broadcasts in Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese,
Cantonese, Gaelic, Greek for Cyprus, Gujarati, Hindustani, Hokkien,
Japanese, Kuoyu, Malay, Maltese, Marathi, Moroccan Arabic, Persian,
Portuguese for Latin America, Sinhalese, Spanish for Latin America,
Tamil, Thai, Turkish and Welsh, making a total of 48 languages in
which broadcasts are delivered.

9. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH WAR-PRODUCTION

“ We must have, and have quickly, more aeroplanes,
more tanks, more shells, more guns. There is imperious
need for these vital munitions.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, l$th May, 1940.

Perspective

The switch-over of the British economy to maximum war-production
was marked during the period 1939-40 by the development of the
factory programme planned before the war. Britain’s geographical
position called for the dispersal of industry in order to minimise the
effects of air-attack. Dispersal of plant proceeded up to about March,

1941.	By that time important new plant was coming into production,
and the end of the year saw the solution of the major problems of
creating productive capacity and manufacturing equipment. This in
turn called for further rationalisation in the employment of Britain’s
limited manpower. Direct governmental control applies to labour
as well as to industrial plant, machine tools and raw materials.

Performance
(a) General

The total production of munitions has risen approximately as
follows : first half of 1940, 100 ; first half of 1941, 150; first half of

1942,	230; first half of 1943, 300.

British industry kept up war production throughout the blitz. For
instance, on one occasion a factory was working at 90 per cent, of
capacity while part of it was still on fire.

26In November, 1943, the output of munitions was at the highest
level ever achieved in Britain. It was half as high again as in the first
quarter of 1942.

(b)	Aircraft

In the first quarter of 1943 the total output of completed aircraft
in structural weight was 55 per cent, more than in the same quarter of
1942.

The output of heavy bombers trebled during the twelve months
ended May, 1943. Twice as many heavy bombers were produced in
October, 1943, as in December, 1942.

In October, 1943, the total output of aircraft was the highest ever
achieved in Britain.

In the twelve months ended May, 1943, the monthly output of each
worker in the aircraft factories had risen by between 25 and 30 per cent.

By March, 1943, 1,500 tons of bombs were being filled in the same
number of man-hours which it took a year previously to fill 1,000 tons.

Repairs are also important, and the Ministry of Aircraft Production
is repairing monthly a number of aircraft equivalent to about two-thirds
of the monthly output.

(c)	Military

In July, 1943, the British Army had nearly 750,000 vehicles. This
compares with 45,000 in 1939.

30,000,000 square feet of covered storage is now needed for army
equipment. This is five times as much as in 1939.

In 1943 a number of wholly new weapons were in service. Those
of which details have been released include the 17-pounder anti-tank
gun, 4-2-inch mortar, 4'5-inch gun-howitzer, and 5-5 howitzer.

By the end of 1942 the rate of output of warlike stores produced for
the Ministry of Supply—weapons and ammunition, tanks and other
military stores—was double the average rate in 1941.

During the 18 months ending July, 1942, the output of tanks was
trebled.

Taking armoured fighting vehicles as a whole, production in July,
1942, was nearly four times as great as in January, 1941.

Production of artillery in 1942 was nearly double the 1941 output,
while the production of filled shells and small arms ammunition was
more than double.

27Monthly output of small arms ammunition is now measured in
terms of hundreds of millions.

In the production of small arms ammunition every munition worker
was filling on the average 60 per cent, more rounds in March, 1943,
than he was a year previously.

(d) Naval

Capital ship strength in March, 1943, was, despite all losses, as great
as at the outbreak of war. And the new ships which have replaced the
old are individually stronger and better adapted to meet new weapons.

There have been very great improvements in anti-submarine
weapons, in all the various fire-control and detection devices, and in
anti-aircraft armament.

By March, 1943, over 900 warships, ranging from trawlers to battle-
ships, had been completed in British shipyards at home and overseas
since the outbreak of war.

A large number of merchant ships have been converted into auxiliary
warships.

Up to March, 1943, over 8,300 British and Allied merchant ships had
been fitted with guns and other devices to protect them against aircraft
and submarines.

The number of conversion jobs runs into thousands. For instance,
preparations for the Allied landing in North Africa involved alterations
to over 300 ordinary merchant ships for use as troop carriers, cased
petrol carriers, floating workshops and store-issuing ships, all completed
in a short time and in the utmost secrecy.

A large number of ships have been equipped with new heavy lifting
apparatus to carry tanks, aircraft, barges and landing-craft all over
the world.

The 1942 target for merchant shipbuilding was considerably exceeded
and a substantially greater tonnage was completed than in 1941.

By September, 1942, 140,000,000 gross tons of merchant shipping,
or 35,000 ships, had been repaired and put back into service.

34,000 warship repairs and refits had been made by the end of 1942,
taking as one repair unit each occasion a warship enters a yard for
repair or refit.

2810. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MANPOWER MOBILISATION

“ We shall not hesitate to take every step, even the
most drastic to call forth from our people the last ounce
and the last inch of effort of which they are capable.
The interests of property, the hours of labour, are nothing
compared with the struggle for life and honour, for right
and freedom, to which we have vowed ourselves.”

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 19th May, I94O.

Perspective

Britain’s population of effective working age is relatively limited—
just over 33 millions between the ages of 14 and 65, of whom 10
million are housewives. British manpower mobilisation has accord-
ingly been of the most stringent order. Of all the factors in war pro-
duction manpower is particularly vital for Britain. It is also the most
stable, and Britain has had to make the maximum effective use of her
resources of manpower and good organisation in order to offset destruc-
tion of plant by enemy action, difficulties in the import of raw materials,
etc. Over and above this, millions of British men and women have
been taken out of production for the armed and auxiliary services.
Yet the total volume of production has been increased.

Performance

22,750,000 British men and women are mobilised in the Services
or in vital employment; of those in full-time employment some 15
million are men, well over 7 million are women. (The total adult
population of Britain is 33,100,000.)

Two out of every three Britons, men and women, between the
ages of 14 and 65, are doing full-time war work. Many do more jobs
than one. (Industrial workers in Home Guard, etc.) Many others,
such as housewives, who cannot do full-time, do part-time war work
as far as they can.

Women who work less than 55 hours a week, and men who work less
than 60, have to do 48 hours a month of additional national service in
the Civil Defence, fire-watching or Home Guard.

In addition to those millions in the Services and essential industry,
at least 9,000,000 more jobs are being done by voluntary or unpaid
workers, including nearly 2,000,000 Home Guards, over 4,500,000
fire-watchers, and some 750,000 voluntary collectors in the National
Savings Campaign.

Over 1,000,000 more men are engaged on munitions than at the end
of the First World War.

29Well over 7,750,000 women are in the armed forces, civil defence
or vital employment for their country. This includes 3,000,000
married women as compared with 1,250,000 before the war.

Taking all women and girls aged 14-59, i-e-> those subject to various
forms of control, the proportion in the Fighting Services, full-time
Civil Defence, munitions and essential industries is about double the
proportion in 1918.

The increase in the number of women from the non-industrial classes
in the armed forces, in industry and in Civil Defence since mid-1939
has been some 2,500,000.

And Britain is the only country in the world which conscripts
women for its uniformed Services.

There are now over 200,000 women in the Auxiliary Territorial
Service. The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force has been expanded to
79 times its original size.

About 8,440,000 men and women workers are covered by Essential
Work Orders. These Orders restrain workers from leaving their
employment and employers from dismissing them, except for serious
misconduct, without the permission of a National Service Officer.

Of women in the 18-40 age-groups, 90 per cent, of the single women
are working and over 80 per cent, of the married women without
children. 1,600,000 women aged between 40 and 60 are in employment.

Nearly three in every four British boys (74 per cent.), and girls
(70 per cent.), between the ages of 14 and 17 are doing work in vital
industry.

Over 1,000,00c people were working on the production of aircraft
alone by December, 1942. And aircraft production is still being
expanded by yet further recruitment of women.

In 1943 40 per cent, of the employees ir. the aircraft industry were
women as compared with 12 per cent, in 1940. In the engineering and
allied industries the corresponding figures are 35 per cent, in 1943 and
16 per cent, in 1940.

More than half (52 per cent.) of all the workers in the chemical and
explosives industry are women.

One aircraft firm replaced 500 men by 500 women with no fall in
output.

In the munitions industries, including shipbuilding and heavy
engineering, one worker in every three is a woman.

3°Some British factories making big guns are staffed to over 70 per
cent, by women. A great proportion of these women had never been
in a factory two years ago ; now they are working 56 hours a week at
the machines ; women are doing skilled men’s jobs and doing them
well.

In the Royal Ordnance factories 60 per cent, of the employees are
women, 32^ per cent, semi-skilled or unskilled men, and only 7J per
cent, skilled men. In the newest Royal Ordnance factory, making
6-pounder guns, women constitute 80 per cent, of the labour on the
production side.

British railways now employ over 114,000 women on work formerly
done by men. One British shipyard is manned entirely by women,
and women are now doing 114 different shipyard jobs.

British war-workers have stayed on the job. In four years of war
the number of working days lost through disputes is approximately
a quarter of the number lost from 1915-18 inclusive.

In order to achieve this mobilization of manpower the British have
had to make many sacrifices and changes in the home life so dear to
them. 22\ million removals of civilians alone have been recorded.

11. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE

“ We are going to make a job of this uoars and those
who are working on the job must have their strength fully
maintained. . . . The Agricultural Ministers for England
and Scotland are ... to be congratulated upon the very
great expansion they have made of our home food produc-
tion.”

rt. hon. Winston Churchill, 12th November, 1941.

Perspective

Because of the high degree of industrialization in Britain and the
size of the population in relation to the total area, the country cannot
be entirely self-supporting in foodstuffs. Nevertheless British farmers
have done a great war job in cutting down the import of food and
relieving the strain on shipping to the utmost by bringing land back to
cultivation and by improving the fertility and output of the land by the
best possible methods of drainage and mechanized farming. The
master plan in policy for production has been to change the island from
a mainly grazing to a mainly arable country, to save a round voyage for
a ship with every 10,000 tons of food grown. Milk is the priority in
dairy farming. The official plans are carried out locally through
County War Agricultural Executive Committees and subordinate

3icommittees of local farmers. These Committees derive essential
information from the National Farm Survey, initiated in 1941. This
provides a substantially complete record of every farm in England and
Wales of 5 acres and over.

Performance

The ploughing-up campaign has brought 6,000,000 more acres
of old grassland under the plough. This means three acres under the
plough for every two before.

From being 40 per cent, self-sufficient in food before the war Britain
has now made herself over two-thirds self-sufficient. This is an
achievement unsurpassed in agriculture.

The British acreage of wheat, cereals and oats had risen in 1942 by
35-6 per cent., 657 per cent., and 72 per cent, respectively since the
start of war.

The amount of home-grown cereals used in the British loaf was
greater by no less than 52 per cent, in 1942-3 than the amount used in

1941-	2.

During 1942 production of tomatoes in the open in Britain showed
a twelvefold increase over 1939 ; under glass the increase was nearly
two-thirds.

The production of onions during 1942 was 10 times that of 1939.
The 1941 crop of carrots was over 100 per cent, up on that of 1939.

In 1942 something like 80,000,000 tons of crops of various kinds
were harvested.

There are now more milking herds in Britain than ever before.
During the Second World War consumption of liquid milk has actually
risen by a third and farmers are producing milk to meet the increased
demand. This compares with the First World War, when British milk
supplies fell by something like a third.

Despite the great increase in the number of milking herds in Britain,
only 1,300,000 million tons of animal feeding-stuffs were imported in

1942-	3 as against 8,500,000 tons before the war.

About 5,000,000 private garden owners contribute to the war effort,
thus releasing land for crops which private individuals cannot grow.
Britain now grows her own domestic sugar ration.

About 4,250,000 acres have been or are being improved under the
drainage programme.

Britain is to-day the most highly mechanised farming country in
Europe. She was estimated in 1942 to have 150,000 tractors, as against

55.000	at the start of war, and 1,175,000 tractor implements as against

200.000	at the start of war. Britain now has more tractors than the
Germans, who had 70,000 at the start of war.

32Output per man in Britain, measured by food values, had gone up
60 per cent., as compared with a mere 5 per cent, in Germany. British
agriculture is now producing per man unit nearly three times as much
as the German.

Britain has closed the gap between the farmer and the scientist by
setting up an Agricultural Improvement Council which ensures that
modern research work is made known to farmers and applied in practice.

12. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH INLAND TRANSPORT

“ Throughout the period of the heavy German air-raids
on this country the arteries of the nation, the railways,
with their extensive dock undertakings, were subjected
to intensive attacks. ... In spite of every enemy effort
the traffic has been kept moving and the great flow of
munitions proceeds. Results such as the railways have
achieved are only won by blood and sweat”

rt. hon. winston churchill, December, 1943.

Perspective

On 31st December, 1943, the four mainline railways were on the
eve of the twenty-first anniversary of their formation. The mainline
railways cover 20,000 route miles ; between 1923 and 1942 some 23,000
miles of track were renewed. Central Wagon Control directs all
wagons where they are most needed, and the Central Operating Con-
ference confers every morning by telephone about big traffic move-
ments. The intimate interrelation between railways and shipping in
Britain’s wartime transport was reflected by the merger of the Ministry
of Shipping with the Ministry of Transport in 1941. Under the re-
sultant Ministry of War Transport, shipping and inland transport
have been rendered one continuous, co-ordinated operation from ships,
through docks, railways, canals and roads.

Performance

British railways are carrying half as much traffic again as they did
before the war. 100,000 rail way men have been called up. 50 passenger
trains have been lost in air raids.

1,265 million miles were run by trains operated by the mainline
railways between the outbreak of war and the end of 1942.

More than 20,000 goods trains a week are being run, and nearly
1,000,000 loaded wagons. Through one main line junction alone 3,000
wagons pass every 24 hours in each direction.

333,980 million miles were run by loaded freight wagons in 1942.
That is 32 per cent, more than in 1938.

1,500 special trains for troops and their equipment are run each week.

There are now no excursions at all. (In peacetime there were
17,500 half-day and evening excursions during the summer.) Instead
there are 1,000 extra trains every day to carry workers to and from
government factories alone.

Journeys at workmen’s rates have increased by 34 per cent. Pas-
senger services as a whole have gone down by 30 per cent., and the
reduced number of trains are carrying on the average more than
twice as many passengers per journey as before the war. Two-thirds of
the passengers on long-distance trains are troops in uniform.

In 1942 locomotives spent 7,000,000 more hours in traffic than in
1938, while the number available for work had increased by only 1 per
cent.

Over 32,000 railway-owned wagons are repaired each week. The
number of heavy repairs is now 20 per cent, greater than pre-war.
Working hours have been increased and additional staff recruited to
meet the position.

Amenities of travel have gone. In peacetime there were 700 dining
cars in use. Now there are only 70, for the longest journeys only.

At the time of Dunkirk, 620 emergency trains were run in eight days
carrying 300,000 troops from seven ports in the south-east of England.
At the busiest time, 100 special trains were worked in 24 hours.

At the end of 1941, locomotives and other rolling-stock were rushed
to Persia to speed up supplies to Russia over the Trans-Persian
Railway. 143 locomotives, specially equipped, with tenders and spare
parts, were sent, and 1,600 steel-frame 12-ton wagons were built in record
time. By working night and day, the assembling works fitted together
the 1,800 parts of each wagon so that one was completed every 37
minutes.

Preparations for the North African Expedition involved the running
of 440 special troop trains, 680 special freight trains, and 15,000
railway wagons by ordinary goods services, to carry men and materials
to the embarkation ports.

Rail and road transport has been co-ordinated. The mobility and
flexibility of road transport has been of great service in the war effort,
especially for maintaining communications after severe air raids.

Retail delivery has been rationalised, saving 34,000 road vehicles
and 25,000,000 gallons of petrol a year, or 36 per cent, of the amount
formerly used.Long-distance vehicles have been taken over by the Government
and are operated by the Ministry of War Transport. This direct form
of control is intended to concentrate the traffic in the fewest possible
vehicles and to ensure that enough vehicles are available in areas where
they are urgently needed. This organisation is handling over 500,000
tons of traffic every week.

Canals, too, have been brought under governmental control. With
8,000 boats and barges they help to reduce pressure on the railways,
carrying 1,000,000 tons a month. Half of this total is represented by
fuel, the remainder is made up of heavy bulk cargoes such as building
materials, munitions, fertilisers and manufactured foodstuffs.

Coastal shipping is being used to the fullest possible extent both
for off-loading from deep-sea vessels and also for long-distance carriage
of coal and other home products. There has been a marked increase
in the tonnage carried by each ship.

13. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH WAR-ECONOMY

“ This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time
to dare and endure. That is why we are rationing our-
selves, even while our resources are expanding. That is
why we mean to regulate every ton that is carried across
the sea and make sure that it is carried solely for the
purpose of victory.”

rt. hon. winston CHURCHILL, ifth January, 1940.

Perspective

0

Britain has mobilised her resources for war in four main ways : by
increasing the total volume of production ; by reducing civilian con-
sumption ; by drawing on capital at home ; by drawing on capital
abroad. The national resources have accordingly been switched
over from a peacetime economy to a war economy by direct control
and rationing and by financial methods. Direct control applies to
labour, raw materials and industrial capacity, to imports and exports,
to the amount and type of goods manufactured and supplied. Civilian
consumption has been notably reduced not only in quantity but also
in quality, and that very extensively.

Performance
(a) Taxation

In 1942, it is estimated, about 40 per cent, of the British national
income went in taxes, including compulsory contributions for social
insurance and war risks or damage.

35In 1943-4, it is estimated, the British Inland Revenue will net in
taxes over three and a half times the amount collected in 1938-9:
£1,873 million as against £520 million. And that relates only to the
budget of the central government. [Inland Revenue includes Income
Tax, Surtax, Estate Duties, Stamps (Inland Revenue), National
Defence Contribution, Excess Profits Tax, etc.]

In Britain a single person earning £500 a year now pays £156 of it
away in income tax ; if he earns £1,000 he pays £381. On unearned
income the tax is even higher. A married couple with two children
and an unearned income of £100,000 would have £5,830 left after
taxation—94 per cent, of their income gone.

Besides this very heavy income ta5c and surtax, indirect taxation is
also very stringent. 20 cigarettes now cost 2s. \d. in Britain ; nearly
three-quarters of the price (is. 8\d.) goes to the Exchequer in duty.

The duty on beer, at the present reduced average strength, accounts
for well over half the price (7\d. out of is. a pint).

Even on tea, the staple drink of British working families, you pay
6d. in duty on a pound costing 2s. lod.

On a wide range of luxury goods you pay a purchase tax amounting
to 100 per cent, of the wholesale value. And on a very wide range of
other goods for civilian consumption you pay a purchase tax of one-
third or one-sixth of the wholesale value.

(b) Restriction

The adult people of Britain are on small rations of meat, milk, eggs,
butter, margarine, cooking fats, bacon, ham, sugar, tea, preserves,
sweets and chocolate.

Purchase-control by a flexible rationing system by “ points ” further
applies to canned meat, canned fish, canned beans, dried fruit, rice,
sago, tapioca, dried pulses, canned fruit, canned peas, canned tomatoes,
canned milk, breakfast cereals, oat flakes, syrup, treacle and biscuits.

There is now no white bread in Britain ; and no ice-cream ; no
bananas, little imported fruit at all except a few oranges.

Standardisation of many commodities., and ‘ zoning ’ of their
distribution so that cross-hauls are cut out, saves internal transport.
Shipping-space is saved by using milk and eggs in their dehydrated
form. Dried egg enables the equivalent of shell eggs to be imported
in a fifth of the tonnage.

Dehydration is being developed in Britain, especially as regards
vegetables. 1,000 tons of raw cabbage, occupying 140,000 cubic feet,

36is reduced by dehydration to 40 tons, occupying 7,500 cubic feet,
without loss of nutritional value.

The ordinary person who cannot show urgent necessity for using his
car is allowed no petrol at all.

Travel by rail is considerably more expensive and more restricted
than in normal times. There are no more excursions or special holi-
day trains in Britain.

Production of consumption goods other than food, groceries and
tobacco, is less than half pre-war.

Only standardised “ utility ” furniture may now be made. This
economical furniture conforms to specified descriptions and measure-
ments, and there is only enough of it to supply urgent needs. Pur-
chase is by permit.

Under 7 per cent, of Britain’s iron and steel is being used for domestic
and civilian purposes.

By efficient standardisation savings in building material have been
effected since October, 1940, of 64,000 tons of steel, 10,000 standards
of timber, 10,000 tons of cast iron and 6,000,000 paper bags for carrying
cement.

British potteries normally produced 67 shapes of cup. Now they
are producing three. The normal range of hardware products has
been cut by 60 per cent. Production of aluminium hardware has
completely stopped.

The supply of clothes available for British civilians is about half
what it was before the war. Clothes are strictly rationed and are cut
on austerity lines.

Linen sheets are no longer made. The manufacture of quilts and
bedspreads has been cut to a minimum and no table-cloths at all are
produced.

Concentration of production has been applied to nearly 70 branches
of industry. 3,587 establishments had been closed by the end of
September, 1943, thus freeing manpower and plant for essential
war purposes.

The quantity of paper available in Britain is about one-fifth the pre-
war supply. Newspapers are cut accordingly.

37(c) Saving

During four years of war Britain’s housewives and Local Authorities
collected 4§ million tons of salvage, showing an increase of 200 per cent,
since the beginning of the war.

Nearly 3,700,000 tons was the total of scrap metal collected from
all sources from November, 1939-July, 1943.

Over 80 million books have so far been collected in a national
drive to collect books for the armed forces, for restocking bombed
libraries and for salvage.

During the winter of 1943-3 British domestic and industrial con-
sumers of coal effected an economy of 11,000,000 tons in response to
the request and advice of the Government. This saving was 3,000,000
tons greater than the advance official estimate.

Over and above all taxes and restrictions the British are voluntarily
saving or giving nearly every penny they can.

There were over 310,642 Savings Groups in the United Kingdom at
the end of November, 1943. That is nearly seven times the number
in September, 1939.

The National Exchequer has received over £60 million in loans free
of interest.

Over £469 million was raised for the war savings campaign in War
Weapon Weeks held between September, 1940, and June, 1941. This
is an approximate average of £io per head of the British population.

Over £545^ million was raised during Warship Weeks in the
United Kingdom between October, 1941, and March, 1942. The
amount thus raised in England and Wales alone (nearly £478 million)
represents the cost of a fleet consisting of 5 battleships, 4 aircraft-
carriers, 45 cruisers, 300 destroyers, 160 corvettes, 33 submarines,
267 minesweepers, 124 motor torpedo-boats, 117 depot ships, sloops,
monitors, etc.

Over £616 million was raised for the war savings campaign during
Wings for Victory Weeks.

Over £6,500 million had been lent to the Government up to
November, 1943. That is an average of over £130 per head of the
British population.

3814. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE BRITISH SPIRIT

“ The wholehearted concurrence of scores of millions of
men and women, whose co-operation is indispensable and
whose comradeship and brotherhood are indispensable, is
the only foundation upon which the trial and tribulation
of modem war can be endured and surmounted. This
moral conviction alone affords that ever-fresh resilience
which renews the strength and energy of people in long,
doubtful and dark days. . . . We are fighting to save
the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny and
in defence of all that is most sacred to man. This is no
war of domination or imperial aggrandisement or material
gain : no war to shut any country out of its sunlight and
means of progress. It is a war, viewed in its inherent
quality, to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of
the individual, and it is a war to establish and revive the
stature of man.”.

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 3rd September, 1939.

The British nation went to war of high purpose. Steady pursuit of
civilised security and peaceful progress, so far from softening the
British people, had inspired them with latent, uncompromising vigour
in defence of their ideals.

The British have made mistakes in the past, and there have been
muddles. The British themselves are the first to admit it—and were
the first to insist upon their remedy. So that to-day it may almost be
said that Britain at war is efficiency in action.

That does not mean that in Britain there are not any shirkers. But
they are rare exceptions to the general run of patriotic, hard-working,
war-working men and women. People in Britain don’t tell each other
much about their unflinching will to win. That is taken for granted.
They just get on with the job.

British people contrive to be cheerful even in wartime. But they
know very well by now what war means. They are in their
fifth year of war. That is a long time to have been fighting, toiling,
suffering, sacrificing, pinching, persevering, hoping, seeing it through.
British people learn to mix courage with endurance, humour with
hardship, grim and gay.

There is urgency in Britain. For the British people feel that they
have indeed suffered a good deal, but nothing comparable to the agonies
of their allies under German and Japanese terror. People in Britain
realise only too vividly that by this comparison their trials have been

39light. They feel that the only way to get right with themselves on this
is to devote themselves selflessly, as never before, to the rescue of the
oppressed and the achievement of victory.

Britain has thrown into this war the full resources, material and
moral, of her ancient national inheritance, and has developed great
fresh resources from the old. The refashioned community of Britain
at war is the novel achievement of a tested tradition.

Such development in itself demonstrates Britain’s absolute deter-
mination to win the war, to win the peace. The progressive social
advance already projected in the home sphere of wartime Britain is
matched in the world sphere by her championship of the principles of
the Atlantic Charter.

The British people were sustained in their desperate peril in 1940
by the certainty of the goodness of their cause. This moral con-
viction guaranteed their conduct. Now it cements the grand alliance
of 34 United Nations.

Britain, covenanted with the United Nations, is going flat out in
fighting this total war through to absolute victory over the enemies of
the rights of the individual and of the advancement of mankind.

(9167)

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